Garment panels for disposable or limited use garments may be made of nonwoven web/elastic material laminates, hereinafter referred to as elastic laminates for simplicity. Some desirable qualities of such elastic laminates may include light weight, good skin feel, exterior abrasion resistance, and good flexibility dependent upon the application. Generally, such elastic laminates may be made with at least a nonwoven facing laminated to an elastic film or filament array.
However, in the past, the ability of the nonwoven part of the elastic laminate to properly stretch or retract, or both, has limited the suitability of such elastic laminates for various personal care product applications. A laminate will only stretch to the extent of its least extendable layer. Various techniques have been utilized in the art in order to overcome such limitations.
For example, perforations have been applied to the nonwoven facings in either the machine direction or the cross direction of the nonwoven in order to try and increase the range of extendability of the nonwovens in the elastic film laminates. U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,021 to Abuto et al. illustrates one such teaching. Other examples include U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,331 to Nakahata et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,702,378 to Widlund et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,066 to Korpman; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,464 to Korpman, all of which are herein incorporated by reference. It is also known to perforate the entire elastic film laminate. However, this technique may lead to a great reduction in the retractive force of the elastic film if care is not taken.
As an alternative to perforating, necked nonwoven webs are also known wherein the nonwoven is extended in the machine direction to decrease its cross direction dimension in a process known as necking. The necked nonwoven is then laminated to an elastic material which holds the necked nonwoven at the reduced cross direction dimension until force is applied whereby the nonwoven may extend out to its pre-necked dimension. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,981,747 and 5,336,545 to Morman illustrate two such teachings. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/034,353, in the name of Morman, further discusses additional methods for obtaining stretch from partially perforated laminates. All disclosures are herein incorporated by reference
Both the perforating methods and the necking methods may have limitations for the making of elastic laminates in terms of degree or direction of stretch and recovery, i.e., extension and retraction, of the laminate, or the economy of manufacture of the elastic laminates, or both, thereby limiting the applications to which such laminates may be put.
The known art has largely concentrated on providing one set of perforations to the elastic laminates to increase extendability. However, the “one size fits all” approach often presents distinct limitations in terms of elastic performance and functionality within a garment for the perforated laminate.
Known laminate processes and their integration into the product or garment as a whole, are further not believed to be sufficiently refined with respect to specific functional or application areas of, e.g., incontinence garments, in which the laminates are designed to be used. For example, a waist area utilizing a nonwoven/film laminate will require different performance from the laminate than a crotch area. Directional stretch and recovery and provision of sufficient bond area for adhering/fastening the laminate to the garment chassis must be taken into account to achieve optimal performance of a garment utilizing the laminate.
Thus, there is need to provide further alternative methods for the production of economical elastic laminates having desirable stretch and recovery abilities for personal care products.